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Haven't read the adventure, but how is it possible for the cathedral to be the back of an Imperator Titan? It would be 10m tall at most, so not very imposing. And how are the Acolytes supposed to drive it without a Princeps?

Lynata said:
Kael said:
What I had considered is that each theme had a paticular Item that they were in search of or had that was causing all the trouble a long that theme. Then I would work to tie all 4 games off into one climatic battle. Likely having them all meet on one planet unbeknowist to the players before hand.
Actually, why not have them meet on that planet even unbeknownst to themselves? As if those Champions were driven by a prophecy or vision they themselves have yet to understand - like some sort of wicked "anti-saints" protected by their respective Chaos Gods, but ultimately mere chess pieces on the galactic gameboard ...
You could create a really colourful troupe out of this. A few first ideas:
The White Champion (Conquest/Slaanesh): a charismatic but ruthless Imperial noble or Rogue Trader who is sick of being on the run from his enemies The Red Champion (War/Khorne): a Feral world barbarian driven by revenge, believes the Imperium is responsible for the fate of his tribe The Black Champion (Famine/Tzeentch): a malnourished young Hive girl from the ghettos of Tranch, has the psyker-gene and often acts in a weird/creepy trance The Pale Champion (Death/Plague/Nurgle): a former Guardsman who fell sick to an unknown disease on some planet and got left behind
The identification of the Four Horsemen with the Chaos Gods has always been a pet theory of mine - the parallels are too sweet not to make use of, though in my interpretation I equalled Conquest to Tzeentch and Famine to Slaanesh.
First, I think that the themes of Tzeentch, like accumulation of power and subjugation of others fit a lot more. Tzeentch has always been more extrovertic - where Slaanesh cares only about experiencing new things, Tzeentchian plots are always in relation to others, seeking to improve the god's or his cultist's standing. That's what I took Conquest to mean.
Then you have Famine as Slaanesh. The description in Revelations notes how after the coming of Famine, there will be no food, but plenty of wine and oil. So there will be no basic nutrition, only substances used for indulgence, which I guess is a pretty good parallel with Slaaneshi cultists always being unfulfilled and desiring more. It's not the hunger for food so much as the thirst for new experiences.
Just a thought.

My thoughts exactly. While the classless system is a great improvement and something I've envisioned a while ago for the similarly "boundless" Eldar Outcasts and Corsairs, the attribute and skill alignment isn't really what I'd imagine to work. With FFG trying to present the Chaos Gods as more three-dimensional entities rather than "all sex all the time", "all rage all the time" etc, I'd think that they wouldn't be just limited to a bunch of skills and talents. There really is a lot of crossover - while, say, Forbidden Knowledge makes you think of Tzeentch and his mysteries, FFG itself presented a Slaaneshi esoteric cult in the form of Ateanism. Both value secret knowledge, but former uses it to increase personal power, while the latter applies it to works of art to experience personal rapture. The methods are the same, what matters is the goal.
Still, I hope that it's just unfortunate wording and FFG's work will be splendid as always.

The Dark Frontier/Forsaken Bounty web adventures make a link between one of the Halo Devices and the Yu'vath at least. There's nothing to say that they're exclusive to Yu'vath, but the link is definitely there.
Also, why would the Eldar imprison the Yu'vath instead of destroying them?

I second Deacis XXIII. He will be the Ecclesiarch in 945.M41 - and not a recently elected one if he has enough power to clash with Karamazov, and given the lifespans of higher class, there's a good chance that he already was in place in 815.M41

Luddite said:
Gerrymandering: (p.238 DotdG): my english is not good enough for this. What is the meaning?
Wow! This one's really wierd.
Gerrymandering is the administrative division of a voting electorate to give your own party an unfair electoral advantage.
So this implies that within Imperial society; within the Adepta, there is fair and open democracy.
This is completely against everything seen so far in 30 years of 40k canon isn't it? With the exception of the High Lords? Are they elected? IF so, perhaps gerrymandering would be part of that?
Not sure at all.
The Imperial worlds can have whatever political system they wish to have as long as they follow laws and submit tithes. Think about it: if Imperium doesn't intervene when a civil war is waged on a planet, when the king/governor is replaced in a court intrigue etc as long as the world stays Imperial, why would they have anything against people voting to elect their legislative and the governor? Also, Pavonis in "Nightbringer" and Solomon in our own "Disciples of the Dark Gods" have democratic (to various degrees) govermnents.

The Harlequin Ritual involving daemonic possession is a fanon myth perpetrated by Lexicanum. It doesn't appear in any of the publication detailing Harlequins since their introduction in WD105 until Dark Eldar codex. In fact, this directly contradicts their other background, especially Solitaire's.
Also, I don't see any reason to make them weaker and less resilient than humans. Whoever intitially wrote them up for Creatures Anathema didn't do research. No source states that Eldar are less resilient than humans - to the contrary, Index Xenos - Swordwind says "Their fingers are long and dextrous and their overall appearance seems slight to the untrained eye, which is strangely at odds with their strength and resilience.", in addition there are many feats of strength performed by them even in the BL books - such as Athenys knocking down a CSM Seargant in a single kick to the chest.
Other than that, great work, though as suggested, Gav Thorpe's old codex has many more units and wargear not seen in their current incarnation - you might want to check it out.

Adam France said:
So, aside from Saints and Primarchs and the Big G-E Himself, can you name one normal human being (or one 'exeptional human being who is not a saint') who is able to produce acts of supernatural divine intervention by faith alone?Also I dispute your position that divine intervention in the setting (ie the supernatural feats Saints seem able to produce - almost channelling the power of the G-E) are not miraculous but merely unconscious manipulation of residual warp energies. That's your opinion imo, it isn't to my knowledge spelled out in canon.
Miracles are a prerequisite for being pronounced a saint. So if 99% of people who perform miracles are later declared saints, isn't it pretty pointless to call for people to name non-saint miraclemakers? It's like calling for Astartes who don't serve as Space Marines.

Make his bad luck appear in-universe. Then have him investigate it, only to find out that he's been manipulated his entire life by the forces unknown, his every step a move in pre-planned direction, "flapping of butterfly's wings" that caused a hurricane elsewhere. He can discover that he's one of the Afriel Strain, perhaps even clone of Macharius himself (they were notoriously unlucky). It's easy to forge a really good story out of this misfortune.

Dan Abnett at least likes his Eldar taller than humans. Ela'Ashbel and Ulu'Kastar are described as "towering demigods", far above human height, while Slau Dha, described as a "gian" in "Legion" lifts John Grammaticus by his throat without effort.

The Laughing God said:
'The King in Yellow' also keeps resurfacing. What do we know about that story? What is it about? Many elements keep being mentioned in this discussion about Haarlock so there must be some relevance to it as the story obviously inspired the writers of the Legacy Trilogy.
Have a read, great stuff:
http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/8492/pg8492.html
It's a horror story that was one of the major inspirations for Lovecraft. While not really that scary, the imagery is pretty great. It's often used by the DH writers because it's comparable in tone to Lovecraft, while also being less famous and not having that peculiar language that used improperly makes you sound like a pretentious schoolgirl.

Wow, it hadn't occured to me, but now it's pretty clear. Camilla and Cassilda are both characters from "King in Yellow", while cognos and noesis both mean "understanding" in latin and greek respectively.

Funny, I just wanted to write that here right now.
No, I don't think that the Harrowing will become a larger part of the fluff - it's just the fact that Dark Heresy and Imperial Armour share a lot of writers, leading to many interesting shout-outs: like Valdor Tank Destroyers on Vraks being shipped in from the Lathe Forge Worlds in Calixis.
Regarding the IA fluff, here's what it says:
It's mentioned as "Pale Wasting", a mysterious threat that emerged from the Halo Stars in M34 during the Nova Terra Interregnum (so we have a conflict with RH which had it in M32), almost destroying the nascent Imperium. It's not exactly clear what it was: there were rumours of gigantic machines slaughtering sector populations and wasting star-borne diseases. After the threat was defeated by tech-heretical means in what is now Calixis, all records were expunged. All that remains are swathes of dead worlds in Obscurus and one stelae on Holy Terra, giving the Novamarines the honour of "unmaking that which cannot die" and naming 10 other chapters engaged, of whom no trace is left in Imperial archives.
So, basically there was a war of proportions rivalling the Horus Heresy that was completely expunged from Imperial records. Cool.

Actually, it's pretty similar to the idea I once had. But I'd go full on Harry Potter. Make them the kids, children of Imperial adepts (governor, Administratum prefect, head of a trade guild, minor Chartist captain etc) who perished in a Chaos invasion. They had to skulk in the ruins for a week or so, until an Imperial relief force arrived and recognised them for who they were. They're being sent by a ship to the nearest Schola. Run this as the HP Hogwarts Express chapter. Introduce a nice girl, pretty much a picture of Hermione - intelligent, a bit arrogant, but still likable. Make sure that they grow to like her, and that they get the HP reference. Then start hinting that she might have some unnatural talents - she is a psyker. So far everything is fine, they start forgetting the horror of the past few weeks. Then they arrive at the Schola, the head Sister greets them, warm and friendly, further making them feel safe. Then suddenly, one of the older students or Drill Abbot grabs the Hermione girl, stares her deep in the eye and recognizes that she's a witch. He tries to lynch her or burn at the pyre, but is only stopped by the Sister. Still, the girl is dragged away in chains. Cue the deconstruction of Harry Potter as it would occur in the grimdark world of 40k, maybe mixed with "Evil" ("Ondskan", a Swedish film about a private boarding school with a very weird code of conduct) - students denouncing their teachers as heretics just to pass an exam, brainwashing the kids into fanaticism, students enforcing their own brutal justice on younger kids, and of course a great evil of your own devising hidden at the heart of it, that nobody notices because they're to busy with their own interests.
It might be a bit different than your normal campaign and might be a bit too dark or shocking for sensitive gamers, but I'd say well worth it.

Doomrider1985 said:
Wargamer said:
I've been considering throwing a fallen Dark Angel into my campaign as a recurring NPC/replacement for dead PC. Of course I currently have 2 Dark Angels in the squad already so things might get interesting if his background ever came out.
First thought that entered my head when I read the Black Shields fluff was "Repentant Fallen Angels"
The core rulebook supports this: the only Blackshield to ever become the Deathwatch Commander was called Brother Israfael (or something like that) and died during joint mission with Dark Angels, who later volunteered to recover his body, but failed. Or at least that's what they said.